But on the other part of your story, the 2 deaths, while sad, that happening is probably not that unusual. Consider how many older people are on a given cruise ship with 3000 passengers.

One was a 20 something & a 64 yr old woman ..unrelated they said
we always seem to have a death or medical emergency on the cruise we are on
We did the Panama in March & a man died his body was taken off in Costa Rica

Last Panama trip in 2007 we has a medical emergency had to have a lady taken off near Cartegena ..she was in renal failure